NPR 2010-01-16

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh.

International aid is being distributed to more earthquake survivors 1 in Haiti, but getting to the masses with food, aid and medical services is still difficult. An estimated 3 million people, 1/3 of Haiti's population lost their homes in Tuesday's 7.0 quake. Reaching all of them is a logistical nightmare. The one airport that's operational is clogged 2 with dozens of planes carrying aid. The situation in the capital Port-au-Prince is turning ugly. Reuters news service, citing a Time Magazine photographer, reports angry survivors have set up roadblocks out of corpses 3 and rocks. There are also accounts of looting. President Obama spoke 4 to Haitian President Rene Preval by phone earlier today. He pledged to help Haiti rebuild. The president also thanked military and civilian 5 teams who've joined searching rescue operations.

"I wanna thank our people on the ground, our men and women in uniform who have moved so swiftly, our civilians 6 and embassy's staff, many of whom suffered their own losses in this tragedy. "

The International Committee of the Red Cross reports it has set up a new website to help connect families with loved ones missing since the earthquake last Tuesday, as Lisa Schlein reports thousands have already registered.

Red Cross spokesman Marcal Izard says the family website which was set up just two days ago already has registered 13, 000 names.

"It's really growing and lots of people are putting their names on it to look for loved ones in Haiti. There are, among these 13, 000, there are several hundred Haitians in Haiti who are also there, who are telling the world or the people there, I'm, I'm still around, I'm, I'm alive."

Izard says many visitors to the site are from the United States and Canada which have large Haitian communities. He attributes the quick response to the spread of information on Internet social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter. He says the Haitian website is growing even faster than the one set up for the 2004 tsunami 7. For NPR News, I'm Lisa Schlein in Geneva.

Exiled former Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide says he's ready to return home. Here’s NPR's Gwen Tompkins.

Former Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide now lives in Pretoria with his wife and children as reportedly embraced a writer's life. A rebellion ousted 8 him from office in Haiti in 2004. But, on Friday, Arsitide told reporters that he may return to his homeland and be of service at this time of great national emergency. Tuesday's earthquake has leveled much of that island nation, and Aristide, who was formerly 9 a street preacher in Haiti, says he has friends who can charter a flight for him to return home. Aristide remains 10 enormously popular in Haiti, despite accusations 11 of corruption 12 and of targeted assassinations 13 of his political enemies. But his return could destabilize national politics at this time, making an already catastrophic situation even worse. Gwen Tompkins, NPR News, Nairobi.

This is NPR.

Eastern Venezuela was hit by an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.6. There have been no immediate 15 reports of injuries or damage.

President Obama's plan for preventing foreclosures has now reached close to a million homeowners, but critics say the program is running into trouble. NPR's Chris Arnold reports.

Nine hundred and two thousand homeowners who are at risk of foreclosure have now had their mortgage payments reduced at least temporarily through the president's plan, but only 7% of qualified 16 for permanent help. It's unclear to what degree, that's because these people can't document their income, or whether the bigger problem is just getting the banks to deal with all the paperwork. Assistant Treasury 17 Secretary Michael Barr.

"We believe there is much, much more work to be done, to make sure the program is running right, to stabilize 14 our housing market in the broader economy. But we're encouraged very much by the efforts we've seen today. "

Bank of America has started 19% of its delinquent 18 loans in the program. Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase are at 35%, and Citimortgage has reached 47%. Chris Arnold, NPR News.

JP Morgan Chase posted a more than 3-billion-dollar profit in the final month of 2009, more than 4 times its earnings 19 a year earlier, but sales were not as high as investors 20 had hoped. And shortly after the open on Wall Street, JP Morgan shares were down 2%.

At last check on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average down nearly 120 points at 10, 594, NASDAQ down nearly 30 at 2, 287, S&P 500 down 14 at 1,135.

I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.